Google faces lawsuit over $5M crypto theft from ‘malicious’ wallet app

• Google has been sued after crypto worth $5M was allegedly lost through its app store
• Google has struggled to deal with fraudulent crypto apps and exchanges on its platform

The Internet search giant Google has been reportedly sued for $5M in crypto theft, which was lost through an alleged ‘malicious’ wallet app download from the firm’s Play Store.   

According to the victim, Maria Vaca, she downloaded the app from the Play Store, she thought the wallet app was legitimate. However, the app allegedly ‘turned malicious’ and vanished with her $5 million worth of crypto assets. The specific crypto assets or the wallet app were not revealed, at the time of writing. 

The plaintiff has reportedly opted for legal redressal through a California state court to challenge the tech giant for allowing malicious apps in its Play Store platform. 

Will Google fold to the claims?

According to policy watcher and crypto litigator Andrew Dressel, the case will depend on whether the tech giant was aware of the malicious wallet app’s operation in its app store. 

“The key piece of information is going to be whether Google was aware that it had a scam app operating on its app store and how long it allowed that to persist.”

Interestingly, Vaca’s legal representative, Chris Vernon of Vernon Litigation Group, noted that the incident was part of a larger crypto theft trend that has become prevalent. 

Indeed, crypto scams have been reported across several apps on Google Play Store. In fact, in April 2024, Google sued several ‘fraudulent’ crypto apps and exchanges, citing that they have scammed over 100k people globally. 

Part of the Google’s April lawsuit claims read, 

“Multiple misrepresentations to Google in order to upload their fraudulent apps to Google Play, including but not limited to misrepresentations about their identity, location, and the type and nature of the application being uploaded.”

This illustrates that what Vaca went through isn’t new to the Play Store. Google has been trying to fight it for a while. However, whether Google will accept the liability and make the victim whole again remains to be seen.